1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of data monitoring and presentation, and more particularly, to a method and system for post-analyzing and sequential visualization of selectable metrics and components within a complex heterogenous system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Monitoring system performance can provide engineers and system operators with time critical information that can often help to alleviate or avert catastrophe and also design better systems. This is especially true for complex heterogeneous systems. Complex heterogenous systems are systems that can have entities and components that are diverse in their functionality and operability. In these complex heterogenous systems, it can often be necessary to monitor metrics defined for these systems in order to ensure that the components or entities in the system are functioning optimally. A metric is a standard of measurement that can be used for mathematical or statistical analysis. Metrics can include performance data or configuration information that can be used to setup software or hardware parameters. As the size of complex heterogeneous systems increase, so does the complexity of monitoring various metrics. Moreover, as complex heterogeneous systems become more diverse, it can become progressively more difficult to collect and analyze the various metrics collected.
Although realtime performance can be critical, post-performance monitoring can be equally important as realtime monitoring. In addition to recreating and analyzing catastrophic events, post-performance monitoring can be used as a training and engineering tool. In doing post-performance analysis, it is necessary to examine a sequence of past events as if those past events were occurring in real time. Since complex heterogeneous communication networks can consist of numerous entities and diverse components, the size and heterogeneous characteristics of these networks can make it extremely difficult to accurately sequence the events in order to effectively perform post time analysis.
Importantly, even after the performance metrics are collected for post-performance analysis, the collected data must be analyzed and presented in a manner that facilitates easy interpretation. Given the heterogeneous nature of these systems, post-performance monitoring must provide a flexible interface that gives choices amongst the various components, entities, elements and metrics that are to be analyzed. For example, in heterogeneous networks, all the performance metrics available during realtime performance must be readily available during a post analysis session in order to determine which metrics of a component are causing a bottleneck and what alternate components, entities or subsystems might have had resources available to accommodate additional traffic.
Notably, although data may be collected, the amount of data to be analyzed can often overwhelm any system or its operator. Hence there is a need for providing an option that can selectively determine which entities, components and metrics should be tracked during post-performance monitoring.